


All The World That You See

by trashnoona



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-10-07 14:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10362975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashnoona/pseuds/trashnoona
Summary: The story of a boy who wanted to fade away, a girl who notices things others don't, how they fell in love and everything in between





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> finished this chapter a long while back and i was going to wait until i was 75% done with the entire fic to post it and have weekly updates...but then i realized no one was going to be upset if i took forever to write it considering it is a named, original character and those aren't ~too~ popular in the mm fandom so here i am
> 
> 1\. title and general fic-mood inspired by "alive" from empire of the sun  
> 2\. seriously, such a self-indulgent fic, you are more than free to judge me  
> 3\. the summary is so bad i swear the story is actually good imo  
> 3\. thanks to anyone who reads it???? so much????

When the alarm on her phone lights to go off at six-fifteen in the morning, it only chimes for a second before Mini slides her finger across the screen and turns it off. She didn’t need it anyways; she had woken up at four thirty only to keep waking up afterwards in intervals of thirty minutes, give or take.

She goes through her usual morning routine to get ready for work, taking small pride in the fact that to the day it had been four months since she started living on her own and much to the misgivings her family and friends—the two very same friends who had been her roommates since the beginning of university and _left_ her to live on her own—had about Mini taking care of herself. Albeit, their concerns were not so much about her _ability_ to take care of herself, as much as worries about living by _herself_ but still.

“I still can’t believe they had the nerve to abandon you like that,” Her mom sighs right into her ear later that morning while she’s commuting to her job, earphones in so she can hear the nagging better.

“We’ve talked about this mama, they didn’t abandon me,” She sighs right back, bringing the mouth piece of her phone close to her mouth. “They went to study abroad.”

Her mom scoffs, “Both of them? At the same time?”

“They’re twins; they tend to do things together ninety-eight percent of the time.” She scoots over to the corner of the subway train she’s on as more people pile in, turning her back against them to gain more privacy.

“It was just so sudden.”

“It really wasn’t…” Mini at this point could only laugh. Four months and her mother was still insisting that her two best friends had completely left her for dead when they announced, ten months before their departure, that they were going to be leaving South Korea to follow their dreams of finishing their degrees abroad in Italy. Those ten months had given Mini enough time to prepare, get rid of some stuff, buy some things, save money for rent, find an apartment and a better job that would be able to sustain her living by herself.

It wasn’t until she had signed a new lease that she realized she could have just found another roommate.

“I think it worked out for the better,” She mentions, shuffling with the crowd of people trying to exit and enter the train simultaneously once she arrived at her stop then get’s an earful about how her mother disagrees.

She lets her mother question and lecture her on a few other things as she walks through the city—how school is going, eating properly, is she getting enough sleep, the weather getting colder soon, did she have enough scarves—until she sees the front of her work building and she assures her mother that she needn’t worry about her so much.

This outrages her mom. “Not worry about you? How could you even tell me that?!”

Letting her mother finish her little rant on, she looks up at the tall skyscrapers around the street. The way the rising sun shines between the buildings and how the light refracts on some of the mirrored tiles is enchanting. She angles her phone and snaps a couple pics for instagram later.

“Did you get that?” Her mother asks, finishing off whatever she drifted into talking about.

Mini smiles to herself at the timing and wording of her mother, “Yes yes mom, I got it.”

“What did I just say Mini?” Her mother asks, knowing full well that her daughter didn’t hear a word she said.

“I love you mom, I’ll call you later this week ok?” She promises with a light laugh, readjusting her bag’s strap on her shoulder.

“If you don’t, I’ll call you first,” Her mother warns and Mini believes it. Forgetting to call her mother was what sprung this impromptu morning phone call in the first place. “And Mini!”

The tone in her mother’s voice had changed slightly and stopped her from hanging up the phone. “Yes?”

“Your job,” Her mother begins, sounding worried and earnest. “Everything _is_ going good, right?”

She smiles, knowing where her mother is coming from, and in her most honest voice puts her worries to rest. “Everything is going really well, I promise.”

They say their goodbyes and her mother reminds her how much she loves her, smacking phone kisses into her ear up until they hang up.

A while back, when she first started her job, she had no idea how things would have progressed. There had been some issues with her boss at the time and it had completely crushed her, she had honestly thought she was going to get fired at some point despite her various attempts to make things work out. Then by some miracle, they moved her to a different position and it even came with a raise and she was _happy_ doing her job, proud to be part of the company. There were still some nicks here and there; sometimes the clients could get a little mean and now she reported directly to the Executive Director of the company, which was absolutely nerve wracking, but couldn’t imagine being happier than she was.

Sliding her earphones into her bag, she pulls out her key FOB and walks up the stairs and into the impossibly tall, impressive skyscraper that was C&R Luxury Occasions.

**x**

When the doctor tells him to focus his sight on his right ear while he checks his left eye, V very nearly laughs out loud.

It must be the jet lag that brings on this kind of hysteria so much that he actually bit his cheek and coughs so as not to seem rude as the doctor goes through his procedure. It was partially his fault for deciding to schedule the appointment two hours after his arrival at the airport from being overseas; he should have gotten some rest beforehand but he wasn’t quite ready to go home. That meant peace and quiet that he didn’t deserve. No, it was better to keep going, even if his body protested. But still, the doctor could have chosen better word phrasing considering his eye sight.

He, the doctor, tells him as much once all the examinations are over. There’s some guilt in it, but V doesn’t really listen to everything the doctor tells him. It’s all the same things told to him before anyways, so he focuses on tracing the heavily blurred silhouette of the man standing in front of him. He still manages to catch a few things the doctor says such as _getting progressively worse_ to _completely blind_ and his favorite, _unless we do something about it soon_. There’s more about tests and studies and one-hundred percent successful surgeries but it’s no use. He can’t help but wonder what’s more impolite: letting the doctor know that he should save his breath and words because he’s already made up his mind or letting the doctor say a million words in order to persuade him when he’s already made up his mind.

“I’ve made my choice, Doctor Park,” V informs him after there’s a lull and he assumes it’s his time to speak.

The answer doesn’t please the doctor. “Yes, but Mr. Kim—”

“Thank you for your kindness and concern, but it’s quite alright,” V assures him, moving to stand and pulling out his cane from his pocket, snapping it open. “I’m perfectly fine the way I am right now.”

This is his truth, but he can tell the doctor highly disagrees by the choking noises he makes with his throat and the heavy exhale of air from his nostrils. V doesn’t blame him. The handful of people he truly cares for in his life have told him how ridiculous he’s being, it’s a very natural reaction, but this was something he has to live with. It was a fair punishment and reminder for how badly he had failed at taking care of the one person that meant the most to him.

“Till next time,” He bids farewell to the doctor, separating ways at the nurse’s station.

The doctor gruffly agrees and then he’s off. V makes it down to the first floor of the building without much hassle but once he makes the turn to the main exit, he’s met with the interruption he’d been trying to avoid, if only for a little longer. In hindsight, all things considered, V didn’t know how he thought he could have possibly gotten away with coming back to Seoul without him finding out. So much so that he counted two hours a victory.

“Are you off now to another desolate, remote third world country?” He hears Jumin ask rather casually from where he’s seated in one of the lobby chairs. V can’t see him exactly; his body is a blur of grays and black but he’s certain his friend is sitting with the outmost elegance

“Have you forgotten how to say hello?” He challenges back, watching his friend’s figure stand up gracefully and walk towards him.

“You’ve forgotten how to accept phone calls, so anything’s possible,” Jumin stops in front of him and reaches out, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving it a tight squeeze. “Welcome back.”

“It’s been a while,” V admits, placing a hand over the one on his shoulder then asks, because he’s curious. “Did you have Saeyoung track me?”

“No,” Jumin answers haughtily.

This confuses him. “Then how…?”

“I had Saeran do it,” Jumin adds just as smugly and everything makes sense again. “Saeyoung was busy with some events.” He’s quite for a moment which makes V guess he’s thinking about asking what happened during the eye appointment but then he says, “Did you eat? We can go have lunch if you’d like.”

Taken by surprise, though not unwelcome, he manages a grin, “Yeah. I can eat.”

Once they get settled into the car, Jumin leading the way, they begin to catch up.

Jumin clears his throat and begins “So where all did you travel?”

“You mean you actually didn’t track my every move?” The teal haired man teases, taking his sunglasses off and hooking them to the front of his shirt.

“I simply requested to be let known when you came back to Seoul,” Jumin explains, rolling his eyes as if this should be obvious but it’s not unkind. “I left the rest to you. Trusting that you would be able to take care of yourself, all things considered.”

V motions a casual hand at himself, “As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Jumin disagrees. “But you’re alive, so at least there’s that. So where exactly?”

“Kind of everywhere. First it was Europe, traveled various countries there. From there I went to America for a little while then headed down to Mexico and then Brazil. The last couple months I was in China. Hong Kong to be exactly.”

“You didn’t miss being home?” Jumin wonders.

“There wasn’t much to miss,” He says carelessly before realizing his words.  “Please don’t take that personally.

“I don’t.” His friend assures, turning to look out the window. “People have different ways of grieving, I suppose. I don’t pretend to understand what you’re feeling nor your reasons for how you’re going about things but if this is what you’ve chosen, so be it. What made you come back?”

“I was due for an eye examination,”

Jumin’s mouth starts to form a frown. “Not that you’ll be doing anything about it.”

“Exactly,” He agrees, sighing at length and looking somewhere at the floor of the car.

“You’re being an idiot,” Jumin snaps and V can only smile, however forced, at his friend’s stubbornness.  “So will you be going away again?”

“I’m not sure…” He says truthfully.

He hears his friend scoff, “Do you think it wise to travel with your eyesight as it is now.”

“I did it for a year.” Although his sight hadn’t been as bad as it was now. Europe had been easy but the Americas had been tough when his sight began to worsen and Hong Kong even harder. Still though. “You said so yourself, I’m alive.”

Jumin narrows his eyes in suspicion. “Why does it sound like you don’t want to be?”

“I didn’t mean for it to,” V admits softly, feeling the weight in heart betraying his words.

They catch up on the lighter topics for the rest of the car ride, despite the fact that V can feel unspoken words of unfinished business in the air. It isn’t tense or hostile, but he knows there are things they need to discuss. Still, his heart lightened ever so slightly at the ease it was to speak to Jumin, even after a year of barely communicating, all on his behalf. Then he feels guilty that he ever worried it would be difficult with his best friend of all his life.

Sometime during their meal, he feels brave enough to ask, “How’s the company doing?”

“Is that something you’re ready to talk about?” Of course he would ask and V nods, giving his permission. Jumin clears his throat and sets his utensils down, as if he’s been waiting for this all long. “Well, it’s going great. Business is rising but not where we’re overwhelmed and even if we were, we’d be able to handle it. The wedding season is dying down so soon we’ll be mostly planning for the holiday season events coming up. The magazine is doing great; readership has gone up over the past year and we’re predicting steady increase. Overall, the company is in excellent shape.”

“I’m glad things are still going well,” V says without really thinking of his words.

Jumin pauses in picking up his knife and fork as he goes over what he just said. “I apologize if anything I said was insensitive.”

“It’s touching how much you care,” V half jokes, drinking from his wine glass.

“Twenty plus something years of friendship should account for some level of empathy.” Jumin reasons and V can tell he actually believes it.

“I’m honored.” He very nearly laughs, especially when Jumin makes a slight humming noise, agreeing with him. He sets his glass down and looks somewhere to the side. “Huh. I didn’t realize how much I missed you until this very moment.”

Jumin tilts his head. “Should I take advantage of this weakness and ask if you missed me enough to come back to the company?”

“Subtle.”

“I meant it.”

V sighs heavily, fiddling with his fork. “I know.”

“Were you thinking of ever coming back?” He asks after a moment, cutting into his food a little harder than probably intended. “Or is the company too much a reminder of her?”

That was an understatement; the world was too much a reminder of her. Living was a constant reminder of what he had let slip through his fingers.

“If you ask me, what you’re doing to yourself is more than enough,” Jumin begins and V can tell he’s ramping up on things he’s wanted to say for a while. “I’m not saying to kill your emotions. It would be wise but at this point I know that isn’t how you operate but to refuse surgery just to make a point of suffering as she did is more than a person’s fair share of punishment.”

“I deserve—”

“No. You absolutely do not.” His voice is firm and unshakeable, but still gentle in the way only Jumin has ever managed to sound. His jaw is tight and his brows are creased, if V could see details he’d have seen the adamancy in his eyes. “You astound me. Most people, in losing a loved one, would grieve by withdrawing from life but you choose to live it while suffering and cutting yourself off from the things that make you happy. It’s sickening to watch really.”

V sets down his fork, eyes firmly set on the blur of white that was the table top. He didn’t deserve to be happy, he didn’t even deserve to live life but he wasn’t at that point. Not yet anyways.

“You loved your job. You loved photographing the events and the people involved with them. If you’ve decided to let yourself go blind then that’s your choice. But you must know that someone who is blind needs pattern and stability to be able to function properly, new environments are difficult to navigate and traveling should be done with a companion. If your new passion is flying to God knows where in the middle of nowhere to do who knows what, then I’ll support you. But if doing that is just a way to suffer, I’m asking you to stop V. Please.”

“Some people would say traveling is living life, you know.” It’s the only thing he can think to say.

“Those people don’t know you like I do,” He states and V knows it’s the truth.

Jumin spares him with that, changing the subject to something less emotionally straining but the damage has been done. One of the reason he wanted to avoid speaking to Jumin for as long as possible, despite knowing the impossibility of that, was because he knew that if anybody could speak any sort of small amount of sense into him, it would be his childhood best friend. V ends up thinking over what he said over and over until the end of their lunch until he’s made a decision, despite his better judgment.

“I can’t take photographs as well anymore, capturing the right moment,” He signals around his eyes. “It’s a bit difficult.”

“I’m in need of COO,” Jumin replies smoothly, not missing a beat.

“How soon would you like me to start?” V raises an eyebrow, almost knowing where this is going.

“We’re on our way there,” His friend answers casually. “Just for the paperwork, of course.”

V huffs a laugh, muttering under his breath. “Sneaky bastard.”

He can practically feel Jumin’s smug smile.

They’re pulling up to the curve outside the building before he knows it. Jumin assists him out of the car and up the stairs and its odd how familiar it is to take those steps up like he’s done thousands of times over the past years. Back then, he would never have thought his life would have to what it has.

“Hey Jumin, you’re finally here,” A boyish, airy voice exclaims once they enter the building and V recognizes it almost instantly. “I thought you would have come through the garage…V?!”

“Long time no see Yoosung,” He greets as they walk into the lavish lobby, hoping the joke lands but Yoosung’s silence tells him otherwise. He clears his throat awkwardly and continues, “Jumin didn’t tell me you were the receptionist now.”

“I’m not, I’m the intern,” Yoosung corrects, his tone wary. “I cover for the receptionist.”

“Is Min-jun at lunch?” Jumin inquires, looking at his watch.

“Yeah, should be back soon,” Yoosung replies absentmindedly. He leans on his elbows, narrowing his eyes the tall photographer. “What are you doing here? When did you get back?”

“Got in a few hours ago,” He says vaguely, knowing it isn’t the time to discuss this. “Most likely for good.”

“If I have anything to say about it,” Jumin inserts, playing with the button on his sleeve.

While he can’t see it exactly, V imagines that that Yoosung looks just as shocked as he is to find that Jumin has managed to find a male receptionist. Well, most likely Yoosung feels a lot more. He pats the reception desk lightly and tells the young boy that they’ll catch up later; Jumin is impatient to begin the tour and paperwork to the point where V thinks Jumin’s is afraid he’ll change his mind.

His best friend knows him almost too well.

**x**

Mini discovered the rooftop garden one month after she started working at C&R and since then, it had been her favorite place to go during lunch. She quickly found that C&R was not only a company for planning luxurious events but also had luxurious amenities for their employees. After seeing the Director and speaking to him on occasion, she could tell why. He was a generous man who only wanted what was best for his company and employees.

So the rooftop garden was beautiful, with all sorts of colorful flowers and plants and greenery everywhere and patio chairs and tables spread throughout.

“Why are you making me stand all the way over here when we’re having lunch together?!” A whining man interrupts her concentration on editing one of the pictures she had taken of the garden to post on instagram. She sighs, turning her head to see the complainer sitting on the bench on the other side of the rooftop garden, dressed in tight black pants and purple collared shirt, his long brown hair tied back since it kept getting in his face earlier as they were eating earlier.

“All I said was that you needed to go to the smoking area if you wanted to smoke. It’s the law!” She yelled back, although she wasn’t so sure that was entirely true. It was company policy however, so there was that. “Besides, you’d kill the pretty flowers.” 

She was glad it was one of those rare few times the garden was empty aside from them. Yelling across to each other would have drawn attention that would have mortified her.

“They’d just replant whatever I kill anyways.” She hears Vanderwood argue but he doesn’t move from where he’s sitting.

He tries to act like a know-it-all dickhead at times but in the past three months she’s gotten to know him, Vanderwood has only proven to be a considerate friend and only slightly of a know-it-all. Mini enjoys having his company when she takes lunch although with his presence also comes along his two other friends, Saeran and Saeyoung, the twins that makeup the IT department. Together, the three of them were absolutely hysterical, but they also make her incredibly nervous and sometimes their loud, dramatic conversations gave her headache. The reasons, she thought, were completely ridiculous and borderline embarrassing especially for someone her age, but she hadn’t managed to break of it.

It makes her feel incredibly disappointed in herself.

“Something on your mind?”

Mini nearly falls off her chair when Vanderwood catches her off guard. She had been so focused in her head she hadn’t seen him start moving her way. He starts cackling, throwing his head back when he sees her reaction. She tries to glare, but it’s completely ineffective.

“Dude, you scare so easily it’s hilarious,” He manages to gasp out and now Mini think he’s just laughing too hard on purpose. She hears him go on for a bit before she starts cleaning her area and packing her things up. He stops immediately. “Wait, I didn’t mean it.”

“Pffft,” She snickers, rolling her eyes. “My lunch is over, you moron.”

“Really?” He clicks on his phone and looks at the time. “Oh yeah.”

His lunch hour isn’t over for a bit longer, but he’s nice enough to travel all the way down to the first floor with her despite the fact that his floor is higher up.

In the elevator, he says, “I’m thinking about switching to a vaporizer.”

“Oh?” Mini chimes brightly, turning to face him with her fingers closed around her nose. She hates the smell of cigarettes and he reeks, especially in an enclosed space.

“Yeah…” He says, dragging it out.

“Are you going to be one of those people who walk around blowing that smoke into the air like a dragon?” She sounds slightly nasally when she talks.

He chuckles. “But of course.”

“You’re a shit,” She says in a way that ever so slightly impressed.

He adds, “I hear they smell pretty great compared to cigarettes so at least you won’t feel like throwing up every time you’re around me.”

“What makes you say that?” She says it so innocently but makes it a point to sound extra nasally that he starts laughing hard again.

A couple floors down, Vanderwood speaks up again. “I’m going to the mall this weekend, wanna come with?”

“To do what?”

“Start a riot, sacrifice a virgin, summon Satan,” He lists off casually, counting off each thing on a finger. “Probably do some shopping between that, pick up a coat or boots. It’s almost winter time.”

“So tempting,” She hums.

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” He insists, slipping his hands into his back pockets and leaning against the wall behind him, “When was the last time you went out?”

She’s watches the circular buttons light up one by one as they move floors. “I go out all the time.”

“With friends?” He sounds skeptical.

Mini highly regrets admitting to him that aside from her two childhood friends, she wasn’t exactly swimming in the friendship department. She knew people, she knew _a lot_ of people—classmates, professors, ex-workmates who she kept up with through various forms of electronic communication and she did occasionally hang out with them every blue moon—but close friends who she went out with constantly was shortlisted to the two people who weren’t around anymore. She was grateful she hadn’t revealed her reasons why, at least she had that still in her pocket.

He jostled her arm with his elbow and grins, “It’ll be fun.”

Somehow, she could tell he wasn’t going to give up. It was sweet that in his motherly way he was concerned about her. Vanderwood, she had noticed, was somebody who thrived with people and liked going out with several friends and was up for always going somewhere no matter how spontaneous. They weren’t at the stage of their friendship where he would understand that she…wasn’t. She didn’t see them ever getting there, to that understanding, so she did what she normally does in that kind of situation.

“What time?” She says dejectedly and he cheers in victory.

They arrange their plans by the time they make it to the lobby. Mini waves goodbye to her friend and makes her way to the front desk where Yoosung, the intern, is staring off into space forlornly.

“Everything okay?” She asks, setting her purse and lunch bag on the metal top.

He shakes his head, snapping out of his trance, and looks at her with his big amethyst eyes. “Oh hey, you’re back.”

“You were really out of it for a second there,” She points out

“Um yeah. Something weird happened,” He admits, taking the headset off around his neck and moving out of the way so she can take her place. “I just saw someone I hadn’t seen in a while.”

“Good or bad someone?” Mini slips her purse into a drawer and her lunch bag into the mini fridge provided for her under her desk.

Yoosung pauses and he’s stares off into space again. Mini places her headset on her head and adjusts the mic, watching him seemingly try and collect his thoughts.

“I don’t know…” He whispers, looking a little lost.

Mini tilts her head and rolls her chair a little closer to him. “Don’t stress about it too much okay? It’s bad for your heart.”

“You sound like a little grandma,” He has fond smile across his face.

“I get it from my parents,” Mini ducks her head, a little embarrassed. She expects him to leave after that, while they’re friendly with each other they haven’t become terribly close since he started a couple months ago. Even the days training him to cover over her position had been a bit conversation stilted despite his good attempts; she just didn’t manage to reciprocate in lively small talk. But he seemed to be upset at the moment and that tugged at her heart. “Um. I’m here, if you ever want to talk. I don’t know the situation or person obviously so I can provide a nonbiased, impartial decision.”

“You won’t me biased towards me?” He pouts a little and it’s really cuter than it should be on a twenty-one year old man.

Mini feels a twitch in her eyebrow. “It’ll be very difficult not to do so.”

This pleases him immensely and it shows on his face. He walks away with a little lighter air around him than before and it makes her glad to know she helped even a little. Then that feeling is gone and is replaced with the icky, gross sensation she was dreading. It isn’t as bad as other times, it’s hardly there actually, but she reaches for the huge bottle of hand sanitizer she keeps in her one of her drawers rubs her hands thoroughly, letting the clean sterile smell calm her stomach.

 After she puts it back, she feels absolutely pathetic.

The rest of the afternoon goes well, taking calls and transferring them to their proper places. People come by and drop off checks or request documents; she prints receipts and emails the forms. For the most part it was quiet except for the soft, trickling sound of the water fountain wall behind her. The C&R lobby has got to be most beautiful one she has ever seen; up in par with hotel lobbies that she didn’t think she’d ever get tired of seeing it day after day.

For the most part, it’s a rather quiet. At some point she hears some voices from the top of the grand staircase, one of them even sounds like the Executive Director, but only a tall man with beautiful colored hair and sunglasses comes down carefully, taking a seat in one of their lounge chairs and paying no attention to her, much to her relief.

That is until after she hangs up on a call and she unconsciously sweeps her gaze lobby, a simple habit she picked up, and sees him facing her directly.

“Excuse me,” He says after a minute and it’s difficult to tell where he’s looking behind his sunglasses. “I’m curious, are you covering for the receptionist?”

That throws her through a loop. Because first of all, why did this person even care who the receptionist is? And second of all, was there supposed to be another receptionist? Had the Director hired someone else to replace her in secret? Her mind began to spin a thousand miles an hour.

“Um. N-no sir,” She manages to say, setting her palms against the cool marble desk to ground herself. “As far as I’m aware…I’m the only receptionist.”

“You’re not male,” He says it more to himself than directly to her.

“Were you looking for Yoosung?” However, that makes a little more sense. If he came in when Yoosung was at the desk, he must have assumed he was the receptionist. Maybe they had spoken and he wanted to pick up where they left off.

The man shakes his head, sitting up in his chair. “No. He’s the intern, I believe.”

“That’s correct,” Mini nods, feeling an odd suspicion about a random man coming and questioning about their employees. “You know quite a bit.”

“Apparently not enough,” The man smiles and while humble, it doesn’t quite look right. “I thought the receptionist was a male. Jumin is always going on about how he would like more male employees. I assumed you were a boy when he said your name.”

“Mini?” She furrows her eyebrows. Had she heard that name, she’d assumed the person was a woman.

“He mentioned a Min-jun,” He says it like it’s a question.

She laughs at that, unable to hold back her relief at understanding the situation. The man startles ever so slightly, probably surprised by her reaction. Mini hurries to explain. “Yes, that’s me although everybody calls me Mini. Hardly anyone calls me by my full name.”

“Ah, Min-jun, there you are.”

“Except for Mr. Han,” She mutters under her breath but she thinks the man in the chair heard her by the tug of his lip. She turns her chair just in time to see Jumin descend the final steps, buttoning his suit jacket. “Yes sir?”

“I’ll be leaving for the day, take messages for me,” He announces and walks right up the other man. “Did I make you wait long?”

“Not at all,” The man assures, pushing on his knees and standing up rather gracefully.

Jumin’s hand gently touches the other man’s elbow, as if he’s guiding him, but his head turns back and says, “Have a good night Min-jun.”

Mini replies in kind and watches them leave, chatting and smiling amicably. They’re very relaxed around each other and she doesn’t think she’s ever seen the Director as content as he seems now. It makes her happy knowing he has someone he can feel relaxed around, normally she finds Jumin to be very formal and proper expect for those far and few moments where his shell cracks and he says something uncharacteristically funny. Mini loved those rare moments.

“Mr. Han!” A sudden frantic voice comes from the hallway leading to the elevators and Mini hears the sound of heels on marble as Jumin’s assistant comes speeding out, looking around the lobby frantically.

“He’s gone Jaehee,” Mini tells her as gently as she can, knowing where this is going.

The woman lets out a long sigh and her shoulders hunch. She stalks over to the reception desk and places her elbows on the top of the counter, burying her face into her hands.

“How are you?” She asks playfully to lighten her mood, resisting the urge to pat the assistant’s head.

Mini absolutely adores Jaehee. There had been a very short period where their interactions were quick and curt, back when she first began in her first position, but they had quickly gotten to know each other and found many similar interests that made them close friends, including working for driven (if not difficult) bosses. Mini had been happy when that happened; she had found Jaehee fascinating since she first laid her eyes on her.

The assistant lifts her head slightly, glasses askew. “I’m still alive.”

“But barely breathing?” The receptionist smirks.

Jaehee’s eyebrows furrow, not understanding the reference. Mini waves a hand to dismiss it. Standing up right, Jaehee adjusts her glasses and sighs again. “He left so quickly. I took the elevator and he still beat me.”

“Guess he really wanted to get out here,” She says and her phone starts ringing. Turning her attention to her computer, she answers and transfers the call efficiently before rolling back to Jaehee. “Was it important? What you needed to speak to him about?”

“Not terribly so…” Jaehee shakes her head but her tone seems unsure. She glances towards the building’s entrance. “Something odd happened today.”

“Everything okay?” Second time she asked the question today, maybe something was in the air.

Jaehee pushes her glasses up. “Yes, nothing to worry about.”  She smiles brightly. “Did you hear the news that Zen is going to be in a new musical soon?”

One of the things they have in common, a love for musical theater and the particular musical actor by the name of Zen. Though Jaehee by far is the more passionate fan, Mini was glad there was suddenly someone else in her life who appreciated the soon-to-big-named actor.

“I diiid,” She replies, just as brightly. “When the time comes, should we go see it together?”

The light in Jaehee’s eyes makes her heart warm. “Yes, that would be fun.”

“Cool.” She does a little dance in her chair which gets a chuckle out of the assistant. What Jaehee doesn’t know, and Mini wouldn’t tell her, was that the musical opening weekend as presumed to be around her birthday. It was exciting to have plans, especially when the two people she would normally spend it with were six thousand miles away.

They talk a bit more about the musical itself, the role Zen was cast in and the other members, how the chemistry between them would work. Jaehee even shows her a picture of the rehearsals she hadn’t seen online, but Mini doesn’t dare ask where she got it from. In between that, she answers phone calls and it makes her happy when Jaehee doesn’t walk away, just stays until she’s finished even with the ones that take more than a minute.

“Hey Jaehee,” She says when it suddenly accurse to her, “Who was the man that Mr. Han was with?”

Jaehee pauses and looks as if she has to think about the answer which makes her panic inwardly. She didn’t want to overstep. Finally, the assistant answers. “He’s one of Mr. Han’s oldest friends and our new Chief of Operations.”

“We didn’t have one before?” Mini questions, shocked. It seemed a pretty important role for a company to be lacking in.

“It’s not really necessary, Mr. Han tends to be on top of everything,” Jaehee explains. “He actually used to work here before, a year ago. He was Director over our graphics division and our top photographer. Covered all our most important events, weddings, parties and did all the in-house shoots for the magazine.” A small pause. “He was…really amazing.”

Mini glances at the front entrance, trying to remember the fading memory of the man she’d spoken with, then turns back to Jaehee, puzzled. “Why is he coming back as the COO?”

“His eyesight is going bad, so he’s not able to take pictures anymore,” She leans against the desk, pointing at her own glasses.

That explained the sunglasses indoors. “Can it not be fixed? Technology is so advanced nowadays.”

Jaehee shrugs, empathetic. “Apparently not.”

“Sad,” Mini pouts, feeling for the poor man.

“I spoiled everything to be said in the staff meeting next week,” Jaehee realizes, looking amused at herself. “Although with more detail.”

“I’m sorry for asking so much,” Mini quickly says,

“It’s natural to be curious,” Jaehee reassures kindly.

So she asks one last thing, just for the hell of it. “What’s his name?”

“Jihyun Kim, although he prefers to be called—” She gets cut off by a ringing coming from her pocket. She reaches down and grabs her phone, looking at the caller I.D. “It’s Mr. Han,” She announces dejectedly. She sighs at length and Mini feels the need again to pat her head. “I should get going; I’ll talk to you later Mini.”

“Bye,” She waves, watching sadly as the assistant leaves.

While she does love her position, it could get a little lonely sometimes being by herself. She definitely treasures the moments Jaehee or Vanderwood stop by to speak to her, more so the former.

The rest of the afternoon goes by quietly and by the time five rolls around, she’s closing the lobby down—physically locking the doors, shutting down all the lights and putting in the security codes—without the usual urgency to get home for peace and quiet. She mentally makes a list to pick some food on the way home, something with fried rice sounds good, and to stop by the café around the corner to her apartment to buy a dozen of their caramel custards, then she remembers that there’s new episodes of basically everything she watches that she hasn’t got around to and she does a little cheer for herself at how beautiful her afternoon is shaping out.

It’s Wednesday and the next day is Thursday which is only one day till Friday which means the weekend and uninterrupted time to herself. The week was coming up to be completely flawless until she remembers she made plans with Vanderwood. The cheering stops. She hates herself for feeling so nerve wracked about the outing, they are friends after all. It’s just gonna be a few simple hours of walking around the mall, going into stores, getting some food and going home.

The list calms her nerves, repeating it over and over becomes a mantra, and then there’s nothing to worry about.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't know why i never posted the second chapter, i've had it written for forever??? important thing! i don't know anything about smoking/vaping so if some things in the chapter sound ridiculous, please forgive me.

Mini feels like she made a terrible mistake.

“What’s that face for?” Vanderwood asks once he catches Mini’s grim stricken expression.

“I think I got the wrong kind of chicken,” She mutters behind her hand, watching as the restaurant worker scoops out something that looks different than what she pictured she had ordered. “I wanted the sesame chicken but I may have gotten the orange instead.”

“Have you had their orange chicken before?”

“No. I hope it’s good,” She pouts as she watches her lunch get boxed up. “Also I got fried rice, why did I get fried rice again; I’ve had fried rice three times this week.”

Vanderwood snorts, “See, it’s a good thing you got something different. A little surprise is good here and there.”

“But I was already surprised today,” She replied, raising an eyebrow in his direction. When he doesn’t catch on, she continues, “Speaking of which, thanks for telling me other people were going to be joining us today.”

He smirks, “Aw, did you want it to be just the two us?”

“I would have liked some warning that it wasn’t going to be,” She says instead because _I would have preferred to spend the weekend alone_ would probably not fly. She moves forward in the line to pay for her meal but he stays back, talking to the lady behind the counter for a bit longer.

Waiting for him by the check out, she glances over the mall’s food court and her eyes land on their table where two red heads and one blond are already gathered, eating their food and making large hand gestures. Mini’s stomach flips.

“Ready,” Vanderwood announces as he pokes her side with his elbow and they move towards the table.

She has gone over their conversation on Wednesday in her head over forty times in the past hour since they first met up and she is almost absolutely certain he hadn’t mentioned anyone else joining their mall adventures. To say she was shocked when she arrived at the set meeting location expecting to find Vanderwood alone only to find him, plus their I.T. department and the intern felt like a bit of an understatement. She had mentally prepared herself for a day with Vanderwood; she hadn’t gotten ready for a day with four of them, no matter how funny they were together. It wasn’t like she was going to have a breakdown or throw a fit, she would be able to handle it with grace and dignity but it didn’t mean she had to be happy with Vanderwood about it.

“Hey, I got the sesame chicken for you.” He points at his tray once they sit down and get settled, Mini between him and Yoosung and the twins sat between them. “So if you don’t like the orange, just get some from here. You can also get the teriyaki if you like that better.”

He was going to make it difficult for her to stay angry but she would try her hardest.

“Thank you.” Her head feels light and dizzy and warmth spreads throughout her entire body. It takes a second or two for the dizziness to clear away and she comes back into the conversations to notice two of the four boys are getting up in arms about something concerning a guild, a warlock and possibly a troll.

She glances between Saeyoung and Yoosung in confusion, “What is…”

“LOLOL,” Vanderwood fills her in, chewing on his lo mien casually.

“A video game?” She’s heard that name before, she almost certainly has but she can’t remember from who or where.

“You have to ask?!” Saeyoung hears her question and the spotlight is moved on her.

“Mini isn’t into video games,” Yoosung mentions sadly, having first hand experience trying to talk to her about LOLOL during his training days. It didn’t go well.

Saeyoung gasps loudly, clutching his heart, “Say it ain’t so!”

“I’m sorry to disappoint,” Mini replies in kind, “I feel like the last time I played any sort of video games was on a Nintendo 64 when I was younger.”

“What did you play then?” Saeran inquires between bites, looking for all intents and purposes like he couldn’t care less for the answer. “Zelda?”

“Mario Kart, Mario Party 64,” She lists off, looking at the ceiling like it has her answers. Then she remembers, “Oh. I guess I lied. I like playing Pokémon on my 3DS that counts right?”

“Pokémon Go, hashtag team valor?” Saeyoung asks, wiping out his cell phone with incredibly speed.

“Definitely not.” She winces when the older twin lets out an overdramatic hurt screech.

“Brother…”

“Saeyoung please,” Vanderwood throws a wadded napkin at him which somehow the older twin hits with his hand just right and it flies back, hitting Vanderwood on the nose.

“Touchdown!” Saeyoung cheers, throwing his hands in the air. “Game, set, match! Agent 707 Defender of Justice for the win! Agent Mary Vanderwood the 3rd goes home with another sad defeat! The crowd. Goes. Wild!”

Contrary to his words, there’s a moment of awkward silence where Vanderwood stares at the napkin on the table, Saeyoung keeps dancing by himself and everyone else looks anywhere but the two of them. When Mini sees the slightest move from the brunet next to her, she pushes her chair to the side until she and Yoosung are knocking shoulders just in time for Vanderwood to stand up and try and grab Saeyoung’s neck.

“You were ready.” Yoosung comments, giving her a smile between trying to make sure no actual physical damage was being done.

“It’s happened before. Multiple occasions,” Mini nods, moving her plate from where Vanderwood’s knee was starting to creep onto the table. She sneaks a peek at the food in front of the blond. “What’d you get?”

“Fried kimchi,” He scoots his plate closer so she can see it better.

“Is it good?”

“I like it. Wanna try?”

“Sure.” She grabs a piece, chews and swallows. Her eyes brighten. “That is good!”

Yoosung looks so proud of such a small thing and Mini feels her heart grow fond of him.

They eat and watch the boys wrestle for a little longer before something happens and both of them separate, falling into their chairs and holding their sides. Mini and Yoosung look to see Saeran bringing his hands down from doing something, still looking bored and completely disinterested. They exchange glances but nothing is said.

“I need a napkin,” The younger twin asks, reaching a hand out.

Yoosung shakily gives him one and Mini thinks that she was definitely not mentally prepared for any of this.

**×**

The rest of the afternoon goes smoothly despite the lunch debacle. She knew that Vanderwood was interested in switching to e-cigs but she’s surprised when there’s a shop in the mall dedicated to selling them and even people smoking inside.

“I just assumed they would sell them in seedy little convenience stores or next to pawn shops,” She tells him when he asks her why she’s so surprised.

He bops her on her head with his newly bought vape pen at that then proceeds to have her help him choose some flavors. One of the ones she decides on is pumpkin spice latte, and she only picks it because of the face Vanderwood pulled when she had jokingly said she liked it.

After that they somehow end up doing more shopping. Somewhere along the lines, Mini became their inside source as to how women liked grown men to dress despite Saeran mentioning that not all of them liked women. Saeyoung pointed out this was worse; men could be even more critical.

It was sweet that they put thought into things like that. Or at least that they tried because despite their interest in achieving “better” style, Yoosung ends up buying two more striped shirts that Mini is sure she has seen him wear before, Saeyoung buys a new hoodie, Vanderwood buys items that are either purple or cheetah print and Saeran. Well, Mini isn’t sure what Saeran buys but she knows whatever it is it’s in black and there were a handful of chokers of various spiked decorations.

Things take a slightly ugly turn when the boys try and return the favor by telling Mini how she should dress. Apparently there was a certain look in her eye when they started making suggestions that completely shut them up seconds later. However, she does allow them to each of them to pick out a hair accessory for her to buy when they get to a jewelry store. They take it way too seriously and they spend much longer in there than any other store they visited before that and at some point she simply sits down and let’s them run back and forth, bringing different things to her face to compare and contrast. In the end, she ends up with one new flower crown, two new bows and a new headband with cat ears.

“Are they okay?” Yoosung asks quietly, watching the store clerk bag the items up from over her shoulder.

“They’re perfect.” And she finds that she really means it, taking the bag and her card from the clerk.

“Here Mini, buy these too,” Saeyoung suddenly comes over and throws a pair of fuzzy, hot pink handcuffs on the counter.

Her eyes widen. “What the…”

“Where did you even find those?” Yoosung exclaims, cheeks coloring as red as Mini’s, who also looks to be short circuiting.

“Bachelorette party section, pretty kinky right?” Saeyoung grins wolfishly, pointing somewhere in the store.

Before anyone can say anything else or the store clerk grab the items, Saeran mysteriously appears and snatches them up, quickly and smoothly handcuffing one to his brother’s wrist and locking the other one to the counter.

He looks at the three friends who are free and with a smirk he says, “Run.”

They bolt, without thinking about it, laughing and gasping as fast as their legs can carry them with all their bags. It becomes a game of hide-and-seek that lasts far too long and results in three minor scratches (Yoosung two and Mini one), two bruises (Vanderwood and Yoosung), one head butt (Saeyoung to Saeran) and one pimp slap (Saeran to Saeyoung.)

Mini can’t remember the last time she laughed so hard she had cried.

The sun is setting by the time they start leaving the mall, relatively in one piece despite Saeyoung loudly insisting that he’s dying. She starts getting ready to split ways with the boys, mentally rehearsing her goodbyes so she doesn’t trip over them, when she notices they’re standing in a group giving her curious expressions. She looks at down at herself, wondering if something is tucked in incorrectly or if there’s an odd stain.

“What’s wrong?” She finally asks when she finds nothing.

“Where are you going?” Vanderwood asks in return.

She points somewhere in the distance. “Metro.”

“Pffft, hell no sista friend,” Saeyoung z-snaps and Mini’s eyes twitches. He sticks his hands in his pockets and walks closer, predatorily almost. “The fun is just beginning.”

“Vanderwood…” She whispers, backing up slowly.

“No, stop that you idiot,” Vanderwood grabs him by the neck and holds him back. Saeyoung squirms; Vanderwood places a hand on his hip. “It is a small surprise but nothing bad, I swear.”

She lends to still having energy left in her that she agrees, throwing her bags along with the other’s in the back of Vanderwood’s car. Somehow they manage to go through the entire car ride without given so much as a hint as to where they were going. When they finally arrive at a dimly lit park with absolutely no sign of pedestrians anywhere nearby, Mini feels like she’s made a terrible mistake.

“Oh god,” She groans, pressing her forehead against the seat in front of her. Everybody in the car turns to her and she looks up, only slightly frantic and more so hysterically calm. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”

Absolute silence. Then Saeran, sitting next to her, turns to Vanderwood in disappointment. “Who told her?”

Next to him, Yoosung whelps. “What?!”

“Quick Saeran, tie them down!” Saeyoung commands loudly and Saeran turns to Yoosung quickly, prepared to pounce, so the blond boy yanks the door open and jumps out, dashing off into the distance.

They watch him for a bit before turning to the brunette girl expectantly. She sighs loud, running a hand through her hair. “You can just kill me now, I don’t like running.”

The twins seem amused by her but Vanderwood rolls his eyes, pulling to open the car door. “Get out of the car; we have a ceremony to perform.”

“You were serious about summoning Satan?” She falters when her door swings up but she gets out anyways because there’s very little she can do at this point.

Saeran follows behind her, “We’re always serious about satanic rituals.”

A fist gently lands against her forehead and she winces for a second, and then opens her eyes to see Vanderwood standing in front of her. “It’s a little more meaningful than that.” He pats her head then turns to Saeyoung. “Go and stop him for God’s sakes, he’s going to run half way across the world.”

While the older twin runs to stop the intern, Saeran and Vanderwood go grab things out of the trunk of the car and something located on the other side of the park, leaving Mini to wait for the other two to get back. When they finally do, they’re walking slowly and Saeyoung is cackling loudly while Yoosung looks a little dead.

“I’m sorry I left you,” He heaves once he steps in front of her, panting from the exertion and he looks on the verge of tears, ashamed of himself.

There are beads of sweat on his forehead and without much thought, Mini grabs the handkerchief she keeps in her purse and presses it to his temple, patting it along his hairline.

“It’s okay,” She reassures, focusing on her task. The air is crisp and it’s quiet and she feels herself smile. “I would have left you too.”

His eyebrows furrow, processing her words, before he starts laughing. She’s glad to have eased his worry; she wouldn’t have wanted to have him upset, especially over her. They talk for a little amongst themselves until Vanderwood announces they’re ready.

“What exactly are you going to do?” She trudges closer to where they are, noticing they’re standing around trashcan where they have set a fire inside it.

Saeyoung waves his hands in the air and over the fire majestically, his eyes closed. This goes on a bit before he opens them and very seriously states, “This is a ceremony to kill Vanderwood.”

Without realizing it, Mini and Yoosung take a step back together.

“Don’t run,” The brunet extends a pleading hand to them and turns to Saeyoung, scowling. “You are being impossible today.”

“Would you say I’m being incorrigible?” He bats his eyelashes wildly, pressing his index finger into his cheek.

“That’s exactly what I said!”

“Semantics~”

“You fucking—!”

“Vanderwood is no longer smoking,” Saeran’s voice interrupts while he’s looking straight into the fire. “That is what we’re here to celebrate.”

Yoosung blinks with realization. “Oooooh.”

“You could have led with that,” She sighs, sticking her hands in her pocket and walking closer now that she feels things make sense again.

“Wouldn’t have been as fun,” Saeran says with a smile playing on his lips, eyes still trained on the fire.

Mini fights the urge to step back again. Wearily, she asks, “What exactly are you going to do?”

“We’re going to burn these.” Vanderwood reaches down to his feet and comes up with a small box filled with cigarette boxes of all different colors.

“Why do you have so many?!” Yoosung balks, eyes widening.

“Well most of them are empty but I liked buying them in bulk so I never ran out,” He explains, placing it against in crook of his elbow of one arm and looking through it with the other. “But since I’m switching now, it feels like I need to get rid of them in a big way.”

“I get it,” Mini nods in understanding and Vanderwood gives her a warm smile but then she deadpans. “But you do realize vaping is just as bad as smoking cigarettes right? It’s still nicotine.”

“It’s a change!” He protests.

Yoosung purposely loud whispers, “I heard its worse actually.”

“Still gonna die young.” Mini teases, looking miserable.

“Such a shame.”

“What a loss.”

Vanderwood pushes the box into Saeran’s arms and picks a plastic bag up from his feet, searching through it. “Keep that up and I won’t let you have a sparkler.”

“I wouldn’t mind. Sparklers freak me out,” Mini admits nonchalantly. The boys turn to her with shocked expressions and she shrugs, kicking a rock on the ground. “I get anxious about the timing of it. Throw it to the ground too early, ruins the moment. Throw it too late, your hand burns off.”

Saeran tilts his head, taking two sticks from Vanderwood. “I’m pretty sure nobody’s ever burned their hand off by a sparkler.”

“What kind of sparklers did you use? Military grade? And if so, where did you get them?” Saeyoung asks all too seriously. He inspects his hand closely. “I think I’d look good with a robotic hand.”

“You shouldn’t joke about something like that…” Yoosung sighs tiredly.

“I shouldn’t have said anything,” Mini mutters to herself, warily taking two sticks that Vanderwood hands her, watching the twins and Yoosung discuss the benefits of a prostatic limb.

He chuckles, “You live and you learn.”

They gather around the trashcan, sparklers in hand and Saeyoung begins a speech about “starting over” and the “challenges ahead”. It starts off rather ridiculous and at some point Mini gets lost in all the metaphors and analogies, there was something about a porcupine and racoon she didn’t quite understand, and she’s sure the others except for Saeran don’t get it either, but somewhere along the way it becomes rather moving and she actually tears up which is slightly upsetting.

“Commence the burning ritual!” Saeyoung declares once he’s finished and they all move forward to stick the sparklers in the fire, trying as carefully as they can to get them lit.

“I think we should have used a lighter,” Yoosung yelps as he struggles to avoid the flames from engulfing his hand.

Once they have them lit, Vanderwood proceeds to start throwing the cigarette boxes into the fire, making it lash into the sky with energy. The group dances around and waves their sparklers into the air, making shapes and trying to spell out words. When their sticks burn to nothing, they grab more and keep going. Mini takes as many pictures as she can, the beauty of the bright sparkling light against the darkness makes her heart beat fast. She feels like this is a moment she’s going to remember forever.

Then the smell of cigarette smoke overwhelms her senses.

“Um…” She gags, dropping her sparkler to the ground a little too early. It dies on the ground pathetically.

Vanderwood turns to her grinning and laughing until he notices the color draining from her face, then it’s wiped clean off. The pieces start to fall together.

“You know,” Saeyoung remarks upon noticing the heavy foul smell in the air. “Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to burn cigarette boxes that were still full.”

It’s stupid, it’s so stupid. She’s being a child and she knows it, adults would be able to handle something as small as this, just hold your breath and keep walking but it churns her stomach and she feels whatever she ate earlier start to make its way back up. There’s a trashcan that’s not on fire all the way on the other side of the park and she bolts towards it. She hears Vanderwood yell something and the others make noises of recognition as to what’s happening but her focus is on making sure everything lands inside the trashcan.

It doesn’t. Her face reddens even more in humiliation. At some point somebody grabs her hair and pulls it back and there’s another hand running up and down her back, trying to comfort her. She knows they’re only trying to help but it doesn’t, it makes the feeling grow worse, makes her skin crawl. It takes longer than it should for her stomach to settle and after it does, she feels weak and dehydrated, her insides flexing and throbbing from the regurgitation.

“Give her some space.” She hears someone say when she finally comes up. Another person, or maybe the same, hands her a water bottle and she rinses her mouth. There’s guck in her nose but she can do no more than wipe it away with her sweater’s sleeve. Her eyes sting with tears and her throat burns.

What a turn of events.

“Mini,” Vanderwood softly tries to get attention, the other boys have backed up farther away from them, probably at his command. “I am so sorry.”

“N-no,” She rasps out, waving her hands out in front of her. She clears her throat and wipes away some tears. “Um. I should be the one apologizing—“

“Don’t.”

“—that this happened.” She swallows and it’s horrible, the taste is foul.

“This wasn’t your fault.” The expression on his face is steel and she knows better than to fight with him on this. He laughs scornfully. “Honestly, I’m an outright idiot not to have thought this through. I just wanted to do something fun, I didn’t intend for any of this to happen.”

“It was fun.” She places a hand on his forearms and squeezes tightly. Then remembers she wiped her nose with that and yanks it back, hiding them behind her back. “There’s no need to apologize either.”

He smiles and it’s a little sad but affectionate. She eyes the three other boys that are gathered in a small group, who are glancing over at them constantly with troubled looks, even Saeran looks slightly on the side of worried. It will be embarrassing to face them, but she squares her shoulders and walks forward.

“Are you okay?” Yoosung is the first to ask, coming right up to her, eyes swimming with concern.

She chokes a laugh. “Yes, I’m good.”

“What happened?” The twins ask simultaneously.

“I’m really, really sensitive to smells.” It’s not entirely a lie so it’ll do. She wipes her nose again and shrugs. “And I guess the food earlier didn’t settle well with me. I’m so—”

Vanderwood whacks the back of her head, cutting her short. “Stop.”

“—ready to go home.” She says suavely, clearing her throat.

When she tries to help them get things cleaned up they all but force her into the front seat of the car with Saeran standing as guard to make sure she doesn’t get up. She stays quiet during the ride to her apartment (Vanderwood wouldn’t even let her think about taking the subway), but the boys talk amongst themselves. The window is rolled down so the cold night air helps clear her mind. It’s also a good excuse as to why her hands haven’t stopped shaking.

“My doorman is right there, there are cameras on every floor, I’ll be fine,” She assures when Vanderwood offers to walk her up once they arrive in front of her building. Stepping out of the car, she points to the trunk. “My bags please?”

“You have a doorman, that’s so cool!” Yoosung exclaims, sticking his head out of the window like a puppy.

Mini manages a slight smile as she grabs her bags, “He’s very nice. As is the security guard!” She adds for good measure since Vanderwood is still looking at her with apprehension.

She bids their goodbyes to the boys, telling them in earnest that she had a good time. As she’s turning to walk up the stairs to the entrance, she catches Saeran with a question written all over his face. He had gotten out of the car to get a view of the building and was now looking at it like it’s holding a secret.

“What’s wrong Saeran?” She follows his gaze to the building, trying to see if anything is out of place or different.

“Nothing,” He answers but his face still looks like he’s trying to piece something together in his head. After a second of silence, he shrugs. “It looks familiar, but I can’t remember why.”

They’re sweet to wait until she’s inside the building and out of their view to drive off. Maybe it was just Vanderwood who waited but either way, it makes her heart flutter. And then the feeling is gone and queasiness begins again, her throat begins to constrict and she walks a little faster to the elevators.

Somehow she manages to make it into her apartment without breaking down but once she’s locked the door and is safely inside, feels her eyes start to burn again and her nose begins to sting. Dropping her shopping bags off on one of the couches thoughtlessly, she feels the tears pour down her cheeks, but she keeps moving around her place to finish what she needs to do for the night.

_Oh Mini_

 In the bathroom, she takes off her clothes that still smell like cigarette smoke and washes her teeth thoroughly. She uses the dirty clothes to dry her soaking chin and regrets it right away, going so far as to throw them into a plastic bag then putting it into the hamper.

_Mini, aren’t you ashamed of yourself?_

A sob escapes her mouth. Her bottom lip is wobbling so much she bites it to stop from shaking, a headache is already forming in the back of her head, her nose is completely stuffed up and she can barely see anything as she slips into her pajamas. It’s been a while since she last had an anxiety attack this bad, but she’s thankful that she was able to hold it in until she was alone. To do something like this in front of other people would have been disastrously humiliating.

She grabs a box of tissues and crawls under the covers, tucking the comforter all around her as she tries to get her breathing under control. It takes her a few minutes but she’s finally able to calm down though she still jitters and shakes.

Despite the horrible ending, Mini can’t remember the last time she enjoyed going out with friends that weren’t her childhood ones and had such a great time. It felt natural and peaceful, the dynamics worked and she felt like she could get used to hanging out with those wonderful dorks.

_Your father would be so heartbroken_

She starts crying again, harder this time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'd love to say i'm posting this for v's birthday but honestly he deserves much better than anything i could ever write. i did start playing his route and ****SLIGHT SPOILER**** he has literally only been in one chat (the INTRO chat) but my love for him reignited so fast and strong that i'm inspired to write for this fic again.
> 
> that being said, this chapter was written a long ass time ago and i'm just now getting around to posting it and since then i...kind...of forgot where i was going with it. like i had a plot, a really good plot and emotional development that i was proud of and now i'm trying to piece it together so next update might take a while but hey, it's not like anyone is waiting....haha...ha

A soft knock against her open office door startles Jaehee to look up from her paperwork.

“Oops, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Mini apologizes, standing under the door frame with a plastic plate on in her hand and a steaming cup in the other. She must have knocked with her elbow.

Jaehee shakes her head, setting her pen down. “Just a bit of a surprised is all. What are you doing here?”

“I brought you something,” She both her hands slightly and jiggles it a bit. The plate is filled with fruit, sweet pastries and some meat rolls and the cup holds coffee. She places it on her desk and takes a step back. “I saw you bolt right out of the conference room as soon as the meeting was over; I figured you wouldn’t have stopped by to get any.”

“Thank you so much,” Jaehee says in earnest and slight astonishment. She brings the plate and cup closer to herself and smiles brightly. “You didn’t have to do this.”

Mini shrugs, holding her hands behind her back. “I wanted to. I’m sure it’s going to be a very busy time for you the next few days.”

A long, heavy sigh escapes the assistant’s mouth and Mini nods in sympathy.

There was nothing in the morning company-wide meeting that was announced that Mini hadn’t already known through Jaehee. Perks of being friends with the Executive Director’s assistant. As well as Chief of Operations’ assistant now. For the most part, the employees all across different departments seemed to be happy, if not indifferent, to the new addition in the upper management, especially the graphics division. They seemed to have clapped (even cheered) louder than the others and were vocally disappointed when they found out he was coming back as the COO and not their Director. When Jumin announced that if anybody had any further questions for their new Executive to submit them to Ms. Kang, Mini had a feeling Jaehee must have been ready to pass out.

“It’s not that there’s going to be more work,” She explains, moving food around the plate with a fork. She gives another sigh and bites the inside of her mouth. “It’s that now the work is going to be split between two people instead of just Mr. Han which will double my work load and possibly set us behind a little bit. Until I get a proper work flow going, that is.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out in no time,” The receptionist has the outmost belief in Jaehee. She points at herself with both her thumbs. “If there’s anybody who can handle this, I know it’s you. And I’m here if you ever need any help.”

“How are you at reading Braille?” Jaehee leans forward, very seriously.

Mini falters. “E-excuse me?”

“No, nothing, never mind,” She shakes her head and goes back to eating.

“Oh,” Mini looks up at the ceiling and puts the pieces together. “Right, bad eyesight. So I guess documents will be in Braille as well now. Will you be able to read it?”

Jaehee chews and nods, then says. “I can read Braille, it’ll be fine.”

“You can read Braille?” She balks.

“Mm hmm.”

“Why in the world did you learn to read Braille, were you anticipating going blind?” It might not be the most tactful way to ask but it slipped it out before she could really think on her words.

The assistant laughs so apparently it worked. “No, I had free time on my hand when I was younger. And I figured it was better to be prepared, just in case. It was fun.”

Mini takes a moment to process what she just heard. It takes her a few seconds but then she’s laughing wholeheartedly. Jaehee looks up, confused, but she doesn’t say anything until the long haired girl stops giggling and looks at her brightly. “Jaehee. You’re amazing.”

The honesty behind the words is evident and it warms her heart. Jaehee ducks her head and blushes. “Not at all.”

“Nah, you are.” There’s really no fighting her on it.

They talk for a little bit longer before it gets closer to the time Mini needs to go downstairs to open the doors. She takes the elevators and visits with a few other people from other departments going up and down to the different floors. When she gets down to the lobby, she gets halfway to her desk before noticing the familiar figure standing against it with his back to her, looking towards the glass doors.

She stops for a moment, trying to figure out why the Chief of Operations would be standing there and then realizes that if she doesn’t keep moving, she’ll be late to opening the doors.

“Good morning Mr. Kim,” She greets politely, walking around the table to grab the master key from where she keeps it in one of her drawers. She notices there’s a food plate in front of him and she

“This is for you,” He pushes the plate in front of him forward. It’s kind of like the plate she gave to Jaehee except this one has more sweet things and meat on it, her favorites. She looks at it skeptically and apparently the silence shows it because he adds quickly, “I ran into Vanderwood on my way down. He had to get to his department in a hurry so when I mentioned I was coming down to the lobby to find you, he asked me to deliver it.”

“That makes more sense, thank you,” She smiles, thinking fondly of her friend, and brings the plate to the lower level of the reception desk. Then the second part of his words clicks in her head and she looks up in alarm. “Wait, is something wrong?”

“No, not at all.” He shakes his head. “I just wanted to properly apologize for the slight mix up last we met.”

She breathes quietly in relief, brushing her bangs. “There’s no need to apologize for that, it was a misunderstanding is all.”

“It was presumptions of me to think you were a man because of your name. Min-jun is a unisex name, I knew that,” He begins to turn as Mini walks around the desk, heading towards the front doors.

“Then you also know that it is primarily given to males,” She reminds him, knowing this fact to be true. It actually wasn’t the first time someone thought she was of the opposite sex when hearing her name. “I found it funny,”

There’s a beat, as if he’s hesitating to say something and then decides to say it anyways. “I made you anxious.”

She freezes in turning the key, peering over her shoulder to look him. “You could tell?”

“Your voice, there was a quiver.” His hand casually points around his mouth and throat. She nods, wondering if other senses are really heightened when one starts failing. “I didn’t mean to cause you any worry about your job.”

“You’re very kind,” She finishes unlocking the rest of the doors and starts her walk back to her desk, all the while talking. “It really is fine Mr. Kim. Fun fact, my own parents thought I was a boy for the longest time during the pregnancy. As in, the entire time. Hence why they picked Min-jun. When they found out I wasn’t, _after_ I was born, they still kept the name because, well, unisex.”

“But you go by Mini?” He rotates to face the desk again once she’s back behind it.

“For as long as I can remember,” She sits and reaches for the switches that turn the lights on then she moves to unlock and log into her computer. “I know it’s a little cutesy but at this point Min-jun is strictly reserved for parental lectures, university professors and or Executive Directors who one hasn’t had the nerves to correct.”

He leans on his elbows over the metal top.  “And how long have you worked here?”

For the first time since they started speaking, she realizes he’s not wearing sunglasses and catches his eyes. They’re slightly bluer than his teal hair and just a touch of glassy, the affect that begins to happen when the eye sight starts going, but he’s looking directly at her like he’s actually _looking_ at her. She can’t help but think that at some point looking him in the eyes would have taken anybody’s breath away.

“Five months,” She answers a little belatedly, blinking out of her stupor and turning back to her work. “I don’t really mind at all though, far be it for me to stop him from calling me by my birth given name.”

“I guess we can’t say he’s _wrong_ ,” He agrees and seems to chuckle at the thought. “Although it would be fun to try.”

She can’t help but giggle herself at the thought of trying to confuse the Director and succeeding. Those were also rare times, when Jumin was told something that confused him, more often than not it was usually about “commoner” products or social conventions, but the look on his face was priceless. Despite the funny imagery, she doesn’t really know what to reply so she’s very grateful it’s at that moment her phone decides to ring.

“I’ll get out of your way,” The COO starts moving backwards, taking each step smoothly unlike someone who has sight issues.

It may be overstepping but before she can think twice, or answer the call, she calls out. “Will you be okay going upstairs on your own?”

“Don’t worry,” As he’s walking, he suavely pulls out a folded white cane out his slack pocket and waves it in the air a bit. “I’ll be just fine.”

Still, he doesn’t use it as he’s goes towards the hallway leading to the elevators, but he walks gracefully and quickly. It’s almost as if he’s not halfway to totally blind. She finally answers the call after a few too many rings and transfers it to where it needs to go. Afterwards she only gives a minutes thought for the man, she wonders how bad his eye sight really is and how he’ll get on in a position that’s more paperwork and numbers rather art and creativity. That’s when her thought process segways to checking her social media, the twins had been in a panic on twitter over some exams they were taking and she wanted to check in them to make sure they hadn’t died or built a fort in their room and barricade themselves in like they had last midterms.

 It would be impossible to break down their door and drag them to their exam rooms, pajamas and all, from over five thousand miles away. Some tweet spamming would have to do.

∞

When the elevator doors open and V steps out, it takes him far longer than it should to realize he’s walking down the wrong hallway. More specifically, he had pressed the wrong floor button. It was a bit embarrassing to admit but even after being at the company for three weeks, he still wasn’t used to going to the top floor for his office. Without thinking, he had gotten into the elevator and pressed for the floor the graphics department is on and even went so far as to actually get out and start heading to her old office. He whips around towards the elevator again and is waiting for it to come back around when he hears footsteps coming down the hall.

“Hey V!” A familiar voice exclaims cheerfully.

He turns his head to the sound and sees a figure of purple, black and a brown heading his way. He smiles slightly. “Hello Vanderwood.”

“What brings you down to our humble abode?” The young man stops in front of him, putting his hands on his hips.

“I got out without realizing this wasn’t my floor,” He halfway explains. It wouldn’t do any good for anybody to know otherwise.

“Your subconscious missed us that much huh?” There’s a grin in the man’s tone. Apparently his half lie didn’t cover all that much. “You know a lot of the guys have been wondering why you haven’t visited yet.”

“There’s a lot to catch up on, I’m sorry if it seemed rude.” This wasn’t entirely a lie either. The trouble with coming back to a company that he had previously worked for that has a low turnover rate was that everybody who was there when he left is still there now that he’s back (with a handful of exceptions) and every one of them wants to speak to him about his travels and his adventures and his eye sight. Moreover, all of them remember or know various levels of gossip regarding the events leading up to his departure, of the things leading up to _her_ death.

“Nah, I figured it was something like, you should come and say hi to everyone though. Especially Leads,” Vanderwood punches his arm lightly. “Unless I’m being completely insensitive then please tell me to fuck off and I will.”

“I’m pretty sure telling you that will result in an HR investigation and I really don’t want to give Jaehee any more work.” He knows Vanderwood’s intentions are good and that he only has his best interest at heart. There isn’t much he’d be able to offer the graphic division at this point, no advice or opinions on their projects, but he could at least say hello. It had been his department for many years after all.

Suddenly the elevator dings, announcing its arrival to take him away to his floor, but V turns from it and gestures down the hall. “Lead the way.”

The graphics department at C&R takes up the entirety of one floor with all its different kinds and sizes of offices. Within it there are different subdivisions that do various things for the department—the photographers, the designers, the independent contractors,  etc— but all of their work is reviewed, edited, approved and published by the Leads Division, which consisted of the Director of graphics department and a small handful of more qualified, talented designers. 

They make brief stops at the offices with open doors; V says his hellos and answers a few inevitable questions as smoothly and vaguely as he can. It’s weird because there was a point where there wouldn’t be a need for such secrecy, where everybody in the department was like family to him whereas now there needs to be a wall. Despite this, everybody is so sweet and kind to him, they genuinely welcome him back and tell him that if he ever needs anything, let them know.

It makes him sick with guilt to be treated in such a way when he doesn’t deserve it.

 “Look what the cat dragged in,” Vanderwood announces when they finally reach their destination, the Leads office.

It’s larger than all the other offices in the department, more like a studio, but smaller than their actual photography studios in the building. Back when V was Director, he remembers the office to have been the epitome of what one would imagine what a graphics design office would look like, something straight out of a movie, and he didn’t imagine it had changed much. From what he could tell it was still bright and colorful.

“What could possibly be so important?” A familiar voice calls out from the corner of the room. V recognizes it immediately and when he hears the loud, shocked gasp echo through the room, he knows he has the new Director’s attention.

“Hello Rui,” He grins and he can tell the figure of the man gets up from his seat and rushes over to clap a hand on his shoulder tightly. The gesture doesn’t faze him; Rui had been his protégée back when he was in Leads and they had been close friends. When Jumin called him in Pakistan to announce he would be taking over as Director, V had given Rui his blessing, stating no one else deserved it more.

“Vanderwood, did you drag this very important man from his very important work to our very unimportant department,” Rui whips around to the designer who has taken his seat at his desk.

“The word I like to use is kidnapped,” Vanderwood clarifies, folding his hands behind his head. “And parading. I’ve been parading the important man around our unimportant department. We’ve got the princess wave down by now.” He demonstrates.

“Careful now,” V lowers his voice to a mock threatening. “I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this division; it must be treated with the outmost respect and loyalty.”

“The very important man decrees it, so it shall be,” Rui agrees. He wipes his hands on his pants nervously. “Do you actually have more important matters to get to because we can totally meet up another time?” Rui had always been slightly of a worrier.

“Now is great.” He glances around the rather silent office and doesn’t see any other figures aside from where Vanderwood is sitting. “Where is everybody else? Did you scare them off?” He inwardly flinches when the words escape his mouth. A former Director joking on the current one’s lack of staff could also be taken as snide criticism.

“It seems that way doesn’t it,” Rui giggles and V is grateful his joke landed. He scratches the back of his head and looks around the empty space. “One of them is on vacation, the other is helping one of our photographers cover an event and the third is on her lunch. I’m stuck with Vanderwood for now.”

“Hey!”

V shrugs, giving his most sympathetic expression. “You win some, you lose some.”

“It just feels so bad though,” Rui wipes away under his eyes like he’s tearing up, “I didn’t know what I had till it was gone and now I’m just left with the runt.”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it work.”

“Harassment, this is harassment!” Vanderwood cries out, only half irritated. “I _should_ file a HR report against both of you.”

“Please don’t, Jaehee has been on the verge of breaking down since I came back,” V turns to him and grins and while it’s completely without malice, there’s an odd undertone of threat to his words. “It wouldn’t be too good for you if she has a meltdown.”

“What…”

Rui leisurely gives him two thumbs up. “You know we adore you Woody.”

“Uck,” Vanderwood full body cringes, turning in his chair and going back to work furiously, muttering curses under his breath. 

V raises an eyebrow, confused, and whispers. “New nickname?”

“It’s not sticking but we’re working diligently on it. Its top priority,” Rui murmurs back, his voice all too serious.

The COO chuckles and let’s Rui lead him to sit in a chair near his desk where they quickly catch up on the basic questions that V has answers prepared for days. It’s only when Vanderwood’s phone beeps a few minutes later and he leaves the room, saying he’ll be back in a bit, that the current Director gets nervously quiet; V can tell by the way he begins to fidget in his chair.  

“Is everything okay?” He asks, tilting his head.

Rui grimaces, “Isn’t that what I should be asking?” He pauses to gather the bravery. “Is your eye sight still bad?”

“Worsening.”

“And there’s really nothing they can do?”

“I’m afraid not.” It’s getting easier to lie now, to sound sincere when others are asking.

“Wow,” Rui whispers, shaking his head like he can’t wrap his mind around it. “That’s insane man. I am so sorry.”

“I’ve made my peace with it,” V looks down at the floor as humbly as possible.

“You are…incredible,” Rui says in awe, now unable to wrap his head around V’s serenity. “I would have been so angry at everything. You’re _incredible_ and this really sucks. Out of all people something like this happened to; I don’t understand why it had to be you.”

He’s a little taken back by that. His throat swells with angry words he can’t say, of things no one will understand. Everybody says he doesn’t deserve it like he’s some saint who has saved the world when in reality he’s the wicked of them all. He deserves everything he’s getting and more.

Instead, he wisely says, “There’s a reason for everything.” Taking in a deep breath, he continues. “But enough about that tell me something actually interesting.”

They go on to speak on a little bit more on the work side of things, the events coming up, the photo shoots scheduled, the models they’ve hired and locations they’re looking into. After a while, V knows he needs to get back to work so they say their farewells and promises to visit each other. On his way back to the elevators he passes by Vanderwood and they wave at each other but V is too in his head to stop and chat to anyone.

He’s not suffering in his current position despite what everyone seems to believe, he can tell by their tones. Having been friends with Jumin for basically his entire life, he has picked up things here and there regarding the more corporate side of the company. It’s not what he loves doing, what he’s passionate for, but if he’s completely honest, not even photography or design could have made him truly happy at this point, he had absolutely no inspiration for it.

At the moment, he just wants to get to his office and submerge in the paperwork, stop thinking about everything else. Taking a sharp turn down the hall, he picks up his pace to keep up with his thoughts. He’s so lost in his head, trying to get out of the graphics floor as quickly as possible, that the next time he passes another opening to a different hallway, he collides strongly into another being.

He’s more sturdy than the person he runs into and he sees their figure lean back as if they’re about to fall. Without thinking, he quickly reaches out and tries to grab their shoulders to steady them but he misjudges their height, the person is apparently a lot shorter than him, and his hands close around their neck and jaw.

“Um…Mr. Kim.” It’s Mini, he recognizes the voice right away but it takes him a second to put two and two together, to realize how tight his grip is. “Ow.”

V retracts his hands back so quickly he’s surprised they don’t make a noise of a sonic boom. “I am so sorry. I did not mean to—that, at all!”

“It’s okay,” Mini laughs sincerely. V sees the blurs of her hands move around her neck, probably easing any pain. His stomach drops but she continues like it’s no big deal. “I assume your intentions were good unless you do have an unconscious need to strangle me to death.”

“Definitely not,” He breathes out, still a little frazzled by his actions. Running a hand through his hair, he wryly mutters. “At this point I deserve an HR complaint.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Mini chirps, having heard him. “Jaehee would end up with the investigation and I would never give her more work.” The way she says it makes the notion of a complain sound _completely_ ridiculous.  She lowers her voice, “She’s been teetering on the edge of losing it for a couple weeks now. “

“That wouldn’t do.” In the back of his mind, he finds it weirdly endearing that she’s noticed it too.

“Absolutely not,” She concurs soundly and takes a step back to let him through. “It was nice seeing you.”

“Likewise.” He nods and moves down the hallway. He only gets a few feet down before he realizes he can still feel her presence behind him. Stopping, he glances over his shoulder, asking despite knowing the answer. “We’re going the same way aren’t we?”

“Um. Yes.” Yet she still doesn’t make a move until he signals for them to walk together. She scurries to meet him and they walk together down the hall.

 “What are you doing up here? Won’t the front desk fall apart without you?” He asks lightly, dearly hoping it hadn’t come across as an accusation.

There was a fine line to walk when speaking to a staff member under someone else’s management. It was heavily looked down for anyone of Management level to go directly to a staff member instead of their supervisor to address a problem. While he was the third in command for the entire company, the receptionist was technically under Jumin’s charge, but he knew that his old friend would know his true intentions if anything ever came to question.

Mini didn’t seem to notice any different and V suddenly felt very guilty for ever thinking she would be the type of person to be so easily offended.

“I’m on break. Yoosung is covering right now; it should be okay for a couple more minutes before all hell fire breaks loose,” She answers, while pulling out her phone from her jacket pocket and glancing at the clock.  She’s quiet for a moment before excitedly whispering, “Vanderwood showed me Records today.”

He gives a low, impressed whistle, “Big day.”

“Huge,” Mini agrees, sounding completely swept away and V feels himself smile, unknowingly pleased by her reaction.

The Records Room was the place where they stored album after album of the events they have photographed. While the C&R Luxury Events has been a company for many, many years, the Records Room archiving system wasn’t implemented until after Jumin took over as Executive Director. Everything was also stored electronically, just for safe keeping, but Jumin understood that some things couldn’t be enjoyed on a computer screen, hence the photo album method. V remembered well how grateful he was when the archiving system had been created.

“How many albums did you get through?” He asks once they arrive in front of the elevators.

“About two,” Mini admits, ducking her head shyly as she presses the button for an elevator going downstairs. “I think I spent a little too much time looking at some of the pictures. They were just so beautiful though.”

V presses the button for going up. “You sound like someone who truly appreciates the work of others.”

“I’d stay and look through more but the front desk may be in flames right now, so I best go down.” With perfect timing, one of the elevators arrives. She gets into it before backing out awkwardly. “Nope that’s yours, going up. I am not going up, I am down. Way down.”

As he gets into the elevator, chuckling, he suddenly realizes he has flurry of questions he wants to ask her regarding what she saw and it surprises him to silence. Before he can react on any emotion, the doors start closing and the last thing he sees is her blurry figure, waving goodbye.

∞

The skin on her arm feels hot and she’s not a fan of it. Reaching into her purse, Mini pulls out her travel size bottle of sunscreen and applies some on her exposed arms, neck and she’s put some on her face but she’s afraid her makeup would smudge if she did, so she prays that the amount she applied in the morning is enough.

“Again?” Vanderwood stares at her with judging look in his eyes and a fork with chicken stopped halfway to his mouth.

Mini scoffs, putting it back into her bag. “What do you mean again? This is the first time I’ve used it today.”

“Yeah but knowing you, you probably applied a bunch of this morning,” He shakes his head and even the way he chews make it look disapproving.

She rolls her eyes and continues eating as if nothing happened.

They’re out in the rooftop garden for lunch and it’s a rather sunny day for the end of October. She had been sitting alone for only a few minutes before Vanderwood came and joined her and soon after Saeran joined them. When she had asked where Saeyoung was, out of curiosity since the I.T. twins (much like her childhood twins) tended to always be together,

“What’s wrong with her putting on sun screen?” Saeran asks after minutes of nobody saying anything and breaking his silence.

“Nothing, she just puts it on all the time,” Vanderwood explains, waving his fork in the air. “It’s not like she’s even that pale and it’s a little ridiculous if you ask me.”

“He just likes to nag,” Mini says, completely unfazed, opening one her lunch containers and popping a grape in her mouth. “At this point if I don’t let him rant, he’ll just pop a fuse.”

Saeran looks between them then asks, “Why do you put so much on?”

Mini narrows her eyes, looking off into the distance like it has the answer. She doesn’t really know if the reason why is something she wants to keep super secret, it really wasn’t a big deal anymore.

“A few years ago, they found a spot on my mother’s back,” She starts off, keeping her voice as casual as possible. It had been over ten years since it happened, she was proud she was able to talk about it without getting a quiver in her voice. “When she was younger, she used to sun bathe a lot, wore a lot of sleeveless clothing. It was very little, hardly cancerous but it was a really scary moment for us. They operated, she’s been clean ever since but now sun screen is an absolute must, along with some other preventative habits.” Waving a hand dismissively, she concludes, “You never know with them UV rays.”

There’s another moment of silence where Saeran looks just a smidge surprised at her story and Vanderwood drops his fork to the ground. He then proceeded to mechanically grab her purse, take out the sun screen and start applying it once more to her arms.

“What are you doing?” She exclaims and yanks her limb away, reaching for a napkin and cleaning off the excess.

“I…didn’t know,” Vanderwood mutters, hands held in the air like he’s still grabbing her arm.

“You never asked why?” Saeran looks at Vanderwood with judgment in his eyes. He leans forward and meanly says, “What kind of friend are you?”

Vanderwood’s whole face drops but Mini accidentally snorts out loud at the seriousness of Saeran’s face. She hasn’t quite gotten his personality down, how he jokes or what is sarcasm and what isn’t, but she’s 94% sure he’s pulling the graphic designer’s leg at the moment. Her hunch is proven when the corner of his mouth tugs into a smirk and he leans back on his hair, looking too proud of himself.

“You’re fine,” She assures Vanderwood who looks ashamed of himself, patting his shoulder lightly, but he doesn’t seem to regain conscious.

“A good friend would get us parfaits,” Saeran suggests, balling up the tin foil his lunch had been in and tossing into a waste bin a few feet away, nothing but net. “Peach parfaits.”

Without speaking, Vanderwood nods and stands up, heading towards the building door slowly, almost robotically. They watch him leave until he’s gone through the doors and out of sight and watch the doors a little more just to see if he’d come back, yelling curses and angry as normal. When he doesn’t, Mini’s shocked.

She turns to Saeran quickly and says matter-of-factly, “You broke him.”

“He’s a weak man,” Saeran nods and crushes his soda can in his hands perfectly. He tosses that into the recycling bin, once again nothing but net. He puts his elbows on the table top and leans forward, looking at Mini like he’s studying her.

For her part, Mini unconsciously leans back on her chair, trying to gather space. She’d never been left alone with Saeran before or Saeyoung for that matter. Or the twins together either, there was always someone else with her. This was foreign territory and she had absolutely no map, anything was possible.

“Hey!” He calls to get her attention. She jumps a bit and he smirks a little wider at that. “What are you on the spectrum?”

She blinks slowly, the question flying over her head. “What? I’m not…” She pauses, shaking her as if to snap out of shocked stupor. “I’m not autistic.”

“I meant,” He clarifies, reaching out to place a hand on her forearm then drags his hand along her arm until he reaches her right hand where she has four rings on her fingers: three silver ones and one slim, black ring on her middle finger, holding it delicately “On the asexual spectrum.”

As nicely as she can, she jerks her arm away and rubs a hand over it as if it was just burned. She looks at him wearily, “You know…?”

“That a black ring on the middle finger of the right arm means there’s a 96% chance the person is asexual,” He leans against his chair again, giving her space. “Yes. I’m aware.” He tilts his head innocently. “So what are you?”

Her mouth twists a little and there’s a guarded look in her eyes but she sighs at length and answers. “Asexual. Maybe…” She trails off and she glances to the side as if she’s thinking about something then decides against it. “No, just asexual.”

“Just,” He repeats, wondering what she was going to say.

She shrugs, fingers playing with the grapes in her container. “No other shade of gray.”

“Okay,” He cracks a slight smile, amused by her words. “So romantic wise, what do you like?”

“Ha wow,” She puffs air into her cheeks and lets it out slowly. “Um, men. Sorry if that disappoints, still being heterosexual without the sexual bit.”

“How dare you be any kind of hetero,” He narrows his eyes and says dangerously. Mini quirks an eyebrow at him but doesn’t say anything. After a second, his eyes go back to normal and he admits softly, “I was being sarcastic. Saeyoung says sometimes I don’t say things correctly so people can’t tell.”

“I gathered,” She smiles brightly and she seems more at ease now, her posture relaxes a little. She goes back to eating her grapes, chewing slowly.

Saeran props one elbow on the table and puts his chin in his hand. “Have you come out as ace?”

“Is this 20 questions? Do I get a turn?” She jokes, a hand over her mouth until she swallows.

“Oh,” He sits up, suddenly alert. “You’re interested in me?”

“In knowing about you?” She rephrases, the way he had put it made her stomach queasy. “Yes. “ It wasn’t entirely a lie, she did find the twins interesting and wished she could understand them a little more, but the act of doing so was a little easier said than done. For his part, Saeran looks a little surprised which in turn dumfounds Mini. “Is that so shocking?”

“A bit,” Saeran nods and Mini startles. He scratches at his skin absentmindedly. “It’s just that when we’re all together, you always stick to Vanderwood’s side.” He glances back at the brunette whose eyes keep getting bigger and bigger. “You didn’t really seem interested in knowing about the rest of us.”

Her cheeks are red, not a pretty red but blotchy and nervous, embarrassed. “I am so sorry if I offended you. That was never my intention.” Glancing sideways, kind of dejectedly, she mutters, “I’m not…very good at the…making of friends thing.”

Saeran thinks that she believes that to be true, but he knows better. He can’t help but think it’s such a cliché; she’s the kind of person who doesn’t realize how charming she is, how she attracts others to her. He didn’t even realize people like that existed but alas, there’s one before his very eyes. Still, there’s more to her than that, he can tell that much.

“Well,” He starts slowly, relishing the way her face goes perfectly still, anticipating his next words. It’s going to be fun figuring her out. “To be fair, Vanderwood does tend to hog all your attention.”

“Oh yes,” Mini agrees, still seeming a little stiff around the edges, but she manages to crack a slight grin. “He does love to be in the center spotlight.” 

In awkward silence, she starts to pack up the lunch containers she still has out, mumbling about having to go back in. Just as she’s about to leave the table without a word, she stops short. Saeran tilts his chin up, waiting to see what she says.

Tightening the grip on the strap of her satchel, she clears her throat and turns to look him straight in the eye. “I really am sorry for any misunderstanding that happened between us. I hope you can forgive me and we can…understand each other a little better now.”

He grins, slowly and exactly like the Cheshire cat would. “I look forward to it.”

Nodding stiffly, she walks away quickly and disappears from sight. He’s alone for a little while longer before Vanderwood walks through the double doors again, carrying three peach parfaits against his chest. As he gets closer to the table, his face becomes more and more confused as to why there’s only one person left when there had previously been two.

“Where’s Mini?” He points at the empty seat after he sets down the food on the table.

“Let me answer that question with another question.” Saeran snatches the plastic cup and begins to open it. “What took you?”

“Line was long and that’s not a question pertaining to mine,” The brunet puts his hands on his hips and glares at the younger twin. “Did you scare her off?”

“Mmmm,” Saeran hums around the spoon in his mouth. He pops it out and looks towards the double doors where the receptionist disappeared to. “I think so.”

He receives an earful for that, Vanderwood lectures him as his brother has about the process of making friends and how he probably asked weird questions like he normally does but really really shouldn’t. Saeran ignores half of what he said, because in the end he’s the one who has won. He had a peach parfait and a new friend to tease mercilessly.


End file.
